Voting begins to elect India's president

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NEW DELHI, July 19 (AFP): Lawmakers in India were expected to elect the nation's first woman president in voting that began on Thursday, following the most scandal-dogged contest in six decades of independence.
Pratibha Patil, the 72-year-old candidate for the ruling coalition, was seen as a shoo-in for the largely ceremonial post, decided in a secret ballot by an electoral college of state and federal lawmakers.
Polling started at the federal parliament and state legislatures across the country amid tight security, local media reported.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and ruling Congress party chief Sonia Gandhi, who have billed Patil's nomination as a push for gender equality, were among the first to vote at the parliament building.
The results are due on Saturday.
The 4,896-strong electoral college comprises 776 federal MPs and 4,120 lawmakers from India's 29 states and one union territory.
The campaign has been marked by vitriolic exchanges over Patil's fitness to do the job.
Patil has been hit by accusations she protected her brother in a murder probe and shielded her husband in a suicide scandal, as well as allegations of involvement in a slew of financial scams.
Although Patil, who is governor of the state of Rajasthan, has denied all allegations of wrongdoing, presidential candidates and their families are traditionally expected to be free from even the slightest whiff of scandal.
"This sort of a dirty (presidential) campaign is totally new, it has set a new low," said political analyst Mahesh Rangarajan.
Patil, plucked from relative political obscurity to be the Congress presidential candidate, is facing incumbent vice president Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, 84, who is being supported by the Hindu nationalist opposition.
On top of the mudslinging, Patil was roundly mocked when she spoke of a "divine premonition of greater responsibility."
India's leading news magazine, India Today, dubbed her the "Embarrassing Choice" on its front cover.
Congress announced Patil's candidacy last month as opinion polls showed most Indians favoured a second term for Abdul Kalam, who has been called the "People's President" for his populist style. His term ends on July 24.
Congress refused to support a second term for Kalam because he was nominated by the previous Hindu nationalist government.
Congress said it was giving a woman the chance to occupy the top post and that it would send a strong anti-discrimination message in India's 60th year of independence.
But the opposition charged that Patil was named due to her loyalty to India's powerful Nehru-Gandhi political dynasty and her friendship with the Italian-born party leader.
With ballots expected to be cast along party lines, "the numbers in the electoral college are in Patil's favour," said analyst Rasheed Kidwai.
Under the constitution, the prime minister wields most of the executive power. The president plays a role in forming government at the state and federal levels, which makes the job hotly contested.
Two days ahead of the poll, a pamphlet with damaging articles about Patil's record was posted to households.
The opposition also launched an anti-Patil website with a banner that read: "India diminished, Indians disgraced."
In a bid to fight back, Congress has hit out at Patil's rival Shekhawat, questioning his patriotic credentials, saying he joined a British-run police force in pre-independence India in 1942 against Indian freedom fighters.